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Ohio State University students returning to Columbus this weekend and to class on Monday are
being asked to do their part to keep themselves and others healthy as a mumps outbreak continues to
sicken students and those close to them.

Students and faculty and staff members will receive emails updating them on the outbreak and
answering anticipated questions about mumps and how to contain it.

Messages through social media and posters on and off campus will encourage practices to keep
disease transmission down, including good hand hygiene and cough-and-sneeze etiquette, said
university spokeswoman Liz Cook.

Cook said Ohio State wants to be sure students and others are aware of the symptoms of mumps,
how to get treatment and the importance of staying isolated if they are sick.

The school also is assembling “get well” bags for those who are treated for mumps at the Student
Health Center that will include information about reducing transmission, she said.

The Student Advocacy Center will help students who have to miss classes while they’re ill by
working with faculty to make sure students know what they’re missing in class and can get
extensions for turning in assignments, Cook said.

For now, there’s no plan to offer booster vaccines at Ohio State, a tactic that has rarely been
employed in mumps outbreaks but showed some promise in a recent study in New York in a smaller,
well-defined population.

Disease investigators with Columbus Public Health have been unable to connect the cases beyond
the fact that most have been students at Ohio State or likely were sickened by exposure to
students, Rodriguez said.

Two of the sick individuals who are not students were hospitalized but have since gone home, he
said.

The city is working with state and federal officials to track any cases outside Columbus that
could be linked to the outbreak here, Rodriguez said.

Columbus health officials say they expect more cases when students return.

“In other outbreaks that we have seen with diseases with a long incubation periods, such as
mumps, you will normally see a prolonged outbreak period,” Rodriguez said. Mumps is rarely seen in
the United States because of widespread vaccination.